The Trade Minister, HSBC and the £200m in tax evasion

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/29/lord-green-hsbc-tax
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The potential scale of the tax loss will heighten pressure on trade minister Lord Green, who was chairman of HSBC's private banking division during the period the HMRC is investigating. He is already facing questions from MPs about the bank's links to Mexican drug cartels and terrorists that came to light this month in a devastating US Senate investigation. Emails released as part of that investigation showed Green was twice warned about compliance failures and allegations that huge sums were laundered by Mexican drug gangs through a subsidiary of HSBC.

Green, chairman and previously chief executive of HSBC until 2010, when he entered government, last week spoke of his regret at HSBC's failures to implement anti-money laundering protocols.

Now it has emerged that the sums allegedly evaded by Britons using HSBC's Swiss bank are massive. HMRC told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism "the early indications are that the amounts are significant".

The HMRC in 2010 received data smuggled out of HSBC by a former bank IT worker, now under arrest in Spain and facing possible extradition to Switzerland, that contained details of 6,000 UK-linked individuals, companies and trusts. Two senior tax investigators who both worked at HMRC told the bureau the average amount evaded in the 6,000 accounts is likely to range between £33,000 and £50,000. Three weeks ago, HMRC secured its first high profile conviction from the HSBC Swiss bank data. Property developer Michael Shanly, estimated to be worth £132m, admitted evading £430,000 in inheritance tax.